My Carb Cycling Diet and ?'s

Diet and Nutrition
1

Been lurking around here for about a year while I was in good 'ol Baghdad :confused: and decided to try to bulk with the help of my friend and these articles. Shot up from a buck 35 to 215 in about 7 months with a ton of stretch marks to boot. It took me 2 or 3 years of going to the gym to realize I needed to eat in order to grow - always too worried about being super lean.

Anyways I finally settled on carb cycling The Carb Cycling Codex using that article to design a cutting diet and want to know a couple things:

  1. Am I doing this right
  2. Have any of you done this and how has it worked for you in terms of strength maintenance (or even improvement) and muscle mass gains if any…if I read the article right you should gain a little size while cutting
  3. Im doing a lot of str training, would a cutting diet affect me and should I change my routine. When I was bulking I had retard str 100% of the time…and lose it after projectile vomitting everywhere. I’m thinking I should keep my rep range between 8-15 if I’m gonna cut, but right now I’m doing 1-3.

DIET FOR MODERATE DAYS
BMR = 3258 kcals @ 205lbs
(I used periods because the forum gets rid of the spaces and I have OCD :/)

Calories - Fats/Carbs/Proteins

Meal 1:…1 Scoop Vitargo…140 - 0/35/0
…1 Scoop GNC Whey Protein …110 - 1.5/4/20
…Banana…121 - .4/31/1.5
…10 Egg Whites…172 - .7/2.3/36
…Total…433 - 1/68/38

Meal 2 (Post Workout):…2 Scoops Vitargo…280 - 0/70/0
…2 Bananas…242 - .8/62/3
…Total…522 - 1/132/3

Meal 3:…1/2 Cup Oats…150 - 3/27/5
…10 Egg Whites…172 - .7/2.3/36
…Cup Milk…91 - .7/12.3/8.7
…Total…413 - 4/42/50

Meal 4:…5oz Chicken Breast…156 - 1.7/0/32.7
…1 Scoop GNC Whey Protein …110 - 1.5/4/20
…1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil…120 - 14/0/0
…Total…386 - 17/4/53

Meal 5:…Can of Tuna…120 - 2/0/26
…2 Tbsp PB…210 - 16/6/8
…1 Scoop GNC Whey Protein …110 - 1.5/4/20
…Total…440 - 20/10/54

Meal 6:…2 Scoops Whey Protein…220 - 3/8/40
…10 Egg Whites…172 - .7/2.3/36
…1 Cup Green Beans…40 - 0/10g/0
…Total…432 - 4/20/76

2

Little difficult to know if your doing a carb cycle diet correctly with one day as it doesn’t really provide a picture of the cycle…

Also no one can tell you based on the info you provided what kind of diet you should be on, a couple general (and i do mean GENERAL) thoughts that you may consider so as not to completely ignore your effort to seek help.

  1. I would suggest your carbs come from more complex sources examples include:
    Oatmeal
    Yams/sweet potatoes
    Ezekiel Bread
    Brown Rice

Pretty much all your carbs are insulin spiking. Also i would decrease the fruit intake slightly, again in favor of complex carbohydrates.

  1. As far as training goes, as you begin the diet you shouldn’t see some drastic decrease in strength…if you do take comfort in knowing your fucking up your diet.

  2. Are you planning on doing any cardio?

  3. Gonna assume you are not a troll, despite your post count but in the future if you want any meaningful input that one couldn’t get out of any article ever, give a little more info.

All the best

3

All his fruit is around his workout, so don’t worry about it.
He’s right you should post what your weekly cycle looks like, because this doesn’t tell us shit.

To simplify your shit to just count the protein in protein sources, the carbs in carb sources, and the fats in fat sources. I know this is going to be pissing on your OCD fire, but it will make your life more livable.

How many high/mod/low carb days are you doing? What’s your long term target bodyweight/BF%?

If you decide to post your weekly diet, just post daily macros, we don’t need to see 2 million periods.

4

Thanks! Alright so lemme see if I can give you all the info without writing a novel:

My Stats:
Age: 24
Lifting 3 years ('07), used bowflex in '06 so I guess technically 4 years
Height: 5’7"
Weight: 205, was 215 about a month ago when I started the palumbo diet
BF%:

Lifts (I don’t actually know my 1RM, these are what I lifted at the end of an excercise last week):
DB Bench: 110x2…I can’t put up 120 on my own but I can press it for one rep if someone helps me get it up initially
Deads: 425x2 no belt, 455x1 w/ belt
Seated Dips: 450 plus weight of machine
Rope Curls: 225x3 (pin on highest plus a 25lb plate)
Military Press: 205 on smith (I dont have a spotter)
Squat: 385x1

My form is good as far as I know, I use full range of motion except for squats. For squats I set the safety bars so that it stops me when my legs are parallel. I dont go ass to ground because I have bad knees (got a discharge from marines cuz of them), but i do go parallel.

I have used a 9-day training split for the last year with a 12,10,8,6 or 4 rep pattern. But recently I’ve switched to the following and added the Evening workouts about 2 weeks ago:

DAY 1 MORNING - CHEST, EVENING - CALVES
DB Bench: 55x4, 65x4, 80x3, 85x3, 90x3, 95x3, 100x3, 110x2, 55x7
DB Flys: 15x4, 20x4, 25x3, 30x3, 35x3, 40x3, 45x3, 50x1, 20x15
Incline DB: 35x4, 45x4, 55x3, 60x3, 65x3, 70x3, 75x3, 35x8
DB Bench Dropset 80 → 15

DAY 2 MORNING - BACK, EVENING - TRAPS
Deads: 135x4, 185x4, 225x3, 275x3, 315x3, 365x3, 405x1, 455 attempt (half way), 225x15
Wide Pulldowns: 90x4, 105x4, 135x3, 150x3, 165x3, 180x3, 195x3, 210x2 cheated last rep, 135x15
Narrow Pullbacks: 105x4, 120x4, 150x3, 165x3, 180x3, 195x3, Dropset 210 → 40
Row Machine: 45x4, 70x4, 90x3, 115x3, 155x3, PUKED EVERYWHERE, 155x3, 205x1, 90x15
for traps i usually just take a bag of pellets in each hand (40lbs) and walk on the treadmill at home. Do that on/off for about 20 min

DAY 3 OFF
Usually I’ll do hill sprints or a couple session of 30 min walks. I haven’t done sprints in a whiiiiiiiiile tho

DAY 4 MORNING - TRIs
Seated Dips - 135x5, 185x4, 225x3, 275x3, 315x3, 365x3, 405x3, 455x3, 495 got it up about half way and my shoulder started hurting so I stopped
French Press - 35x4, 50x4, 60x3, 70x3, 80x3, 90x3, 100x3, 110x2, 40x25
Incline Rope Pulldowns (I set an incline bench underneath rope) - 50x4, 60x4, 70x3, 80x3, 90x3, 100x3
French Press Dropset - 80 → 15

DAY 5 MORNING - BI’s - EVENING - FOREARMS
EZ Bar Curls - 55x4, 65x4, 75x3, 85x3, 95x3, 105x3, 115x3, 125x3, Dropset 135 → 55 -10lbs
Hammer Curls - 15x4, 20x4, 25x3, 30x3, 35x3, 40x3, 45x3, 50x3, 55x3, 60x3, 35x15
Incline Curls - 15x3, 20x4, 25x3, 30x3, 35x3 (cheated last rep), 30x1 (cheated on right arm), 25x12
Preacher DB Curls - 15x4, 20x4, 25x3, 30x3, CRAPPED MY PANTS when I farted but usually I would do a dropset on the rope machine

DAY 6 OFF, same as Day 3 if I have any energy left

DAY 7 SHOULDERS - EVENING TRAPS or Neck bridges (this is new for me)
Military Press on smith (i dont have a spotter) - 95x4, 105x4, 135x3, 185x3, 205x2, 185x2, 195x2, 205x1, 215 attempt, 95x12

DAY 8 LEGS - EVEING CALVES
Squat - 95x4, 135x4, 185x3, 225x3, 275x3, 315x3, 365x2, 385 I farted and lost concentration, 225x12
Leg Curl - 75x4, 90x4, 105x3, 120x3, 135x3, 150x3, 75x12
Leg Ext - 90x4, 105x4, 120x3, 150x3, 165x3, 180x3, 195x3, 205x3, 240x3, 270x3, 285x3, 285 dropset to 90
Usually I’ll do another set of squats at 135 until muscle failure

DAY 9 OFF

I also take sundays off and use it as a cheat day and really go bananas. My sessions usually last 40-60 min and my break between sets is whatever time it takes me to sip on my water and record my reps into my phone. Usually the last set I may take up to 3 min, epsecially for squats and deads. Because I take all my carbs around workout time, surprisingly I have the energy to keep this up, but I may forgo the evening sessions in favor of light cardio since my cals are really low.

AAAAAAAAAND that took me an hour :confused: My macros are:
Low Days
Fats = 39g
Carbs = 192.2g
Protein = 307.5g
Cals = 2350

Moderate Days
Fats = 39g
Carbs = 256.3g
Protein = 307.5g
Cals = 2606.6

High Days
Fats = 39g
Carbs = 320.4g
Protein = 307.5g
Cals = 2862

Low Days are off days, Moderate Days are Workout Days, and High Days are on Back and Leg days. My cardio currently is just 30min walks in the morning and evening, and stairclimber on off days. I basically use the same outline as in my first post for all days, but just adjust the amount of bananas and vitargo to increase the carbs. Proteins and fats remain the same, with cheat days on sundays althought truth be told I have cheated a lot recently do to holidays.

5

Low days you could benefit from upping your fat(80-100g instead of 39) 39g is pretty low for your weight.
For getting leaner, your low days could use lower carbs as well. Start at ~150g maybe, and work your way down and you get leaner. Like every two weeks take off 10g, some sort of progression like that.
Your high days, you can lower your protein, carbs spare your muscle, so you don’t need to jack it up like that.
You got the right idea, just fix your low days.

6

Ya I was thinking the fats where a bit low too, I’ll try adding some more in for a week or two and see what happens. Ill prob just add in some whole eggs.

I didnt know about carbs sparing muscle tho, for sure ill look into that a bit more. I can switch out some protein and replace it with milk which will up my fats too…

Thanks!